The flow of natural gas from the Tamar offshore field exemplifies the potential fruits of a partnership between the state and private entrepreneurship, but also its risks.

The Festival of Freedom, as Passover is sometimes called, this year blessed Israelis with the transition to an era of energy independence with cheap, clean fuel. For decades Israel failed to find the natural-gas reserves with which it is blessed, until experienced private firms stepped in to fill the state’s shoes. Thanks to their...

The private firms did 100% of the gas exploration and they will be the
ones bringing the stuff up so its only right they get their share of the
profits. One of the conditions these companies have made is that Israel
agree to make a certain percentage of the gas available for export not
just for domestic needs. Whilst the gas belongs to the state the state
did not take any risks at all or invest a single shekel of tax money so
we are not in a position to dictate very strict terms, if we want to
decide how the gas is used then it needs to be taxpayers who take the
financial risk. Before we start worrying about profits we may find
ourselves at war with Hezbollah over this gas. They claim the gas is in
Lebanese territorial waters and they will not let Israel steal Lebanons
gas and we say its in Israeli territorial waters and we are not going to
let Lebanon take any of it. The Lebanese government seem to have backed
down on initial claims it belongs to Lebanon but Hezbollah have not so
we may well have to fight another very bloody war with Lebanon before we
get our gas. Now we have finally started bringing the stuff up it may
well get the Hezbollah war drums beating as its no longer about the
theory now Israel is pumping what they believe is Lebanese gas so we
better prepare for war before profit and so we also need to start
increasing the navies budget rather than cutting it, they are under
equipped as it all and their warships are getting very old ( the
youngest are the 3 SAAR 5 corvettes which are nearly 25 years old ) many
are being decommissioned and not replaced because they are not being
given the money to do so. We can't keep asking the navy to do more and
more with less and less.

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